Sustainable Food

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Leveraging our global scale

It is estimated that more than 9
billion people will live on this planet by 2050. Food and production must
increase roughly 70% to feed that many people. As the world’s largest grocer,
Walmart has an opportunity to use our global scale and resources to positively
impact one of the most important issues facing our world today. By forming direct connections between farmers, markets
and training, we are strengthening local economies, providing access to
affordable food and establishing supply chain transparency.

Nature is Speaking

For resources like water and
soil—foundational elements to keep the world fed and nourished—our commitment
to sustainability has a ripple effect around the globe. The food industry has
to adapt to meet the world’s rising demand for food, in a way that does not use
every last drop of water and erode every ounce of soil.

Working with supplier companies and NGO partners
like Conservation International and Environmental Defense Fund, we will provide
increasing visibility over the next 10 years to agricultural yields, greenhouse
gas emissions, and water usage, and drive adoption of best practices in
sustainable agriculture.

Produce more food
with fewer resources

Pilot
commodity optimization program: We collaborated with 15 large suppliers – representing 30% of our food
and beverage sales in North America. By providing farmers with data and tools,
they’re able to develop plans to optimize fertilizer and tilling practices in
corn and soy crop rotations. This saves money, reduces greenhouse gas (GHG)
and, ultimately, delivers more sustainable products to our customers. The pilot
commodity optimization program includes 2.5 million acres, with the potential
to reduce GHG by 2.3 million metric tons (MMT).

Fertilizer
optimization: While our
work on fertilizer optimization has been foundational, we are exploring
opportunities to scale this and other pilots across food commodities. We are in
the process of developing new relationships that could total 14 million acres,
with the potential to reduce GHG by an estimated 7 MMT.

Support farmers and
their communities

Small and medium-sized farmers in emerging markets will be
counted on to meet half the increased global demand for food and clothing
through 2050, and Walmart has committed to goals to improve their livelihoods:

Sell
$1 billion of goods sourced from 1 million small and medium-sized farmers in
emerging markets by the end of 2015: Walmart is sourcing $4 billion from 1.2 million to 1.4 million small and
medium-sized farmers. We’ve focused our programmatic sourcing efforts in our
produce purchasing, where we have the most direct relationship with farmers,
and funded training programs for farmers in several other categories.

Train
1 million farmers and farm workers by the end of 2016, of which we expect half
to be women: By the end of
2013, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation had contributed to training 307,332
farmers and farm workers in emerging markets, of which 132,405 were women. In
addition, the Walmart Foundation funded six projects in Africa and Asia in
2013, which will reach another 370,000 farmers, an estimated 258,000 of them
being women.

Increase incomes of farmers by at least 10%
by the end of 2015: In China, we continue to work with the University of
California at Davis and the Chinese Center for Agricultural Policy to conduct
an income assessment of produce production bases that supply Walmart China and
other retailers.

Sustainably source key food commodities

Palm
oil: The demand for palm
oil in everyday products has contributed to significant deforestation around
the world, so we’ve committed to phasing sustainably sourced palm into our
private brands. Walmart U.S.successfully transitioned 25% of our
private brands to sustainable palm, and we’re scaling that approach across all
private brands where palm oil is an ingredient. To date, 27% of palm oil used
in our private-label products globally is sustainably sourced.

Beef:
We’re working toward a
dedicated beef supply with environmental specifications, accounting for 15% of
the industry by 2023. In 2013, Walmart Brazil worked with suppliers to develop
a database of ranches that supply beef and rolled out supplier qualifications
and continuous improvement plans. This work is being expanded to support all
international markets that source beef from Brazil.

Seafood:
More than 90% of Walmart
U.S., Sam’s Club and Asda’s (U.K.) fresh and frozen, farmed and wild seafood
has earned Marine Stewardship Certification or Best Aquaculture Practices, or is
engaged in a Fishery Improvement Project. In 2013, our operations in Africa,
Brazil, Canada and Chile joined the initiative and we’ve engaged with other
retailers, suppliers, scientists and NGOs to develop Seafood Sustainability
Program Principles. For more information, see our Seafood Policy.